Entries Tagged 'Brian Keene' ↓

Spring has come with a
vengeance to LeHorn's Hollow, Pennsylvania. While
walking his dog, mystery author Adam Senft stumbles upon an enigma of his own,
when he encounters his pretty neighbor engaged in a lewd act with something
that is not human. Soon enough, he
discovers that evil surrounds the entire town. The woods themselves are behaving strangely,
the sound of pipes is on the air, women are going missing, and some supernatural force is drawing upon the not-so repressed desires
of the townspeople, threatening to transform LeHorn's Hollow into something of
a hell on earth. Only Adam and his
neighbors seem to have an inkling of what is going on around them, and it falls
upon their shoulders to try and make things right.

The setup for Brian
Keene's latest novel is certainly reminiscent of other small town horror
stories (it certainly draws upon such works as Stephen King's Salem's Lot,
Robert McCammon's Bethany's Sin, and Bentley Little's Dominion). However, there is more to Dark Hollow than
its setup. The execution is where this
book truly shines, particularly in several strongly evoked characters (human
and otherwise), which seems to be the trademark of Keene's fiction.

The protagonist for this
novel (and the first person narrator) is Adam Senft, a mystery novelist who
managed to succeed in his chosen career against all expectations. While not in the league of say James Patterson, Senft has nevertheless
succeeded in such a fashion that he can live comfortably as a full time
novelist. His family life is not quite
so successful, alas. Though happily
married, he and his wife are unable to carry a baby to term. A series of miscarriages has left them
childless and, worse, ruined their hope for having children. There is a melancholy to Senft's narration,
and a certain fixation on the sex lives of his neighbors (which is only
natural; it's a product, this reader perceives, of envy).

There is a lot of sex in
this book, from literal acts to metaphoric ones to a general mood of sexual
frustration. Yet, while there are lewd
moments to the work, the subject is for the most part handled with maturity, craft, and wit.

Thematically speaking,
this work hearkens quite closely to Keene's novel Ghoul. The supernatural antagonists have similar
motivations and are, in fact, presented as nearly identical: both are the last members of an ancient
species, minions to Greater Powers that exist outside our time and space
(Dunsany and Lovecraft via Keene's
Labyrinth mythos). These two works are reflective
of each other (bookends of a sort), though where Ghoul dealt mostly with coming of
age, this one is more about accepting the responsibilities that come with
living within a community.

One place I would like to
have seen a bit more information than is offered is in the town itself. While ably evoked in early chapters, this
reader is a fan of the microcosmic creations of King, Braunbeck, Grant and
other horror writers. With a first
person narrative, we are confined to only the one perspective, and therefore
are shown only a slice of the town. While further novels (including the upcoming Ghost Walk, a preview
of which is found in Dark Hollow) will undoubtedly further detail the town and its
hinterlands, this reader has seen enough to know he wants more, more, more (blame me for being American; alas, even instant gratification takes too long). Beyond both this "lacking" and the egregious flaw of far too many characters whose names begin with the letter "C" (Cory, Cliff, Carl,
et al.), this novel delivers exactly what it promises, a personal horror story.

There are plenty of
references to Keene's Labyrinth mythos (as well as his other works),
but these details are kept in the background. While picking up on these is not necessary to understanding Dark Hollow,
they offer choice nuggets to Keene's longtime fans. These are details in the corner of the canvas, so to speak, pleasant
enough to behold by the general observer but a real treat for this author's constant readers.